<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>The Road Goes Ever On by KatePryde</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29120496">The Road Goes Ever On</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatePryde/pseuds/KatePryde'>KatePryde</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Hobbit - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Time Travel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 05:13:21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,048</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29120496</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatePryde/pseuds/KatePryde</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Who but a Mad Baggins would go trapezing off on an adventure with a pack of dwarves, and male dwarves besides? In her father’s coat and trousers, no less. They did not expect her to be gone so long. </p><p>Nor did they expect her to return, but return she did. With gold, and stories, and a sword strapped to her waist. She was riding a pony, and she was quite put out at having to hunt down all of her belongings once it was realized that they were indeed attempting to auction them off. The gold and the stories weren’t the only thing that she returned with, her closer friends and relatives noted. She also came back with sorrowful eyes that seemed bigger and wider than the Brandywine River itself.  These eyes would grow bigger and wider once Drogo and Prim died and left her with Frodo, though Frodo would be the only reason her eyes lit up again. </p><p> </p><p>And so the life of Belladonna Baggins the Second passed by. She gave the ring to Frodo, who went off on an adventure of his own, and though he came back to her he was quickly gone again. She chose to stay, having enough of adventures. Her next greatest adventure would be death, and returning to those she loved. And so it was. </p><p>Until she woke up again.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. A Prologue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Belladonna Baggins the Second was not a normal hobbit. She was born a normal hobbit. She was raised a normal hobbit. But after that nasty adventure she took, she was no longer a normal hobbit. </p><p>Everyone in Hobbiton had expectations for Belladonna Baggins the Second. The first expectation was that she would be the first in a long line of children who would spend their years terrorizing the inhabitants of Bagshot Row. (After all, her mother was a Took, and what can be expected of Tooks but trouble and mischief.) This expectation soon passed once it became clear that Belladonna Baggins the First would only ever bear one child. The hobbits of the Shire all thought it odd, but what else could one think of a Took? </p><p>The second expectation that hobbits had about Belladonna Baggins the Second was that she would move in with a relative after the untimely deaths of her parents. The Fell Winter was not kind, and it most definitely was not kind to Belladonna Baggins the Second, who was forced to watch her parents be torn apart by wolves as they tried to make for the elves for help and food. Belladonna Baggins the Second did not, however, move in with a relative. She settled quite nicely into the role of Mistress of Bag End, content in the running of it. When her closer friends protested her being alone in the large smial, she simply said, “Father built this into a home for mother. It was good enough for them, and it is certainly good enough for me.” </p><p>The third expectation to be had about Belladonna Baggins the Second was that she would be a Mad Baggins for the rest of her days. This expectation was one she was able to meet. After all, who but a Mad Baggins would go trapezing off on an adventure with a pack of dwarves, and male dwarves besides. In her father’s coat and trousers, no less. They did not expect her to be gone so long. </p><p>Nor did they expect her to return, but return she did. With gold, and stories, and a sword strapped to her waist. She was riding a pony, and she was quite put out at having to hunt down all of her belongings once it was realized that they were indeed attempting to auction them off. The gold and the stories weren’t the only thing that she returned with, her closer friends and relatives noted. She also came back with sorrowful eyes that seemed bigger and wider than the Brandywine River itself.  These eyes would grow bigger and wider once Drogo and Prim died and left her with Frodo, though Frodo would be the only reason her eyes lit up again. </p><p> </p><p>And so the life of Belladonna Baggins the Second passed by. She gave the ring to Frodo, who went off on an adventure of his own, and though he came back to her he was quickly gone again. She chose to stay, having enough of adventures. Her next greatest adventure would be death, and returning to those she loved. And so it was. </p><p>Until she woke up again.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. A Short Beginning</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Bella decided she would be quite alright in the afterlife if it continued to resemble Bag End. She would be quite alright indeed. She was laying in her bed, in the very bed she had taken her last breath in in fact, and she was quite content with her lot in life. Admittedly, she expected all of her Durins to be there to greet her, but she supposed that since she was in her bedroom at Bag End they probably were waiting for her in the hall or the kitchen. She was excited with the thought of getting to see her dwarves, and her parents, all the persons that she had spent a lifetime loving that had gone on before her. </p><p>She would of course, apologize to Balin and Ori for ever letting them go on to Moria without her. Their deaths had been some of the hardest to live with, considering that they had lived through so much together only to lose them in the later years of their lives. Dwalin had never been the same once it appeared that his brother was never coming back from the helpless hopeless place that he had thought to build a home in. </p><p>At the same time though, Bella understood why he had gone. She herself had never returned to Erebor after the deaths of the line of Durin. </p><p>But enough of that now, she was here, and she knew she was dead, and she was quite ready to see her people once more. She had after all, spent the last half of her incredibly long life without them. She stood up out of her bed and was shocked at how simply young and limber she felt. Once she had hit one-hundred she was still limber and agile, but an ache had settled in her bones after Erebor that had never truly vanished and only got worse as the years went on. The ache was no longer there, and she felt like a very young hobbit once again. </p><p>Indeed, she felt younger and lighter than she had in nearly a century, before the journey of the Company. </p><p>She caught sight of herself in the looking glass, and realized that she looked as young as she had the year she had gone on her great adventure. She was dressed in a nightgown, and found it incredibly odd, but shrugged her shoulders without a care. </p><p>It was her room in Bag End, after all, and so she dug through her wardrobe to find a pair of her walking trousers and a shirt and waistcoat that looked remarkably like the ones she had been wearing the day that she had run off down the road and not returned for over a year. </p><p>  She stuck her head out of her door, and searched all of the rooms in the bag end only to find that she was quite alone. Puzzled, she looked at the calendar. Well, of course the Valar would choose that date to be displayed for her. She stepped outside onto her front porch and looked around, wondering exactly where her loved ones were. “Good morning.”</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>